December 16, 2016 remnded me of why teaching is SO rewarding. Dwight Willcock invited me and my students out to his house because he wanted to show us his collection of Civil War era Calvary pieces. I had heard that he had a display in his house but I did not expect what I actually saw.

It had been a couple of weeks since we had set the date for us to go to his house so I called him that morning to double check that it was still ok to come and get specific directions to his house in the country. My team-teacher, Tim Elge, and I loaded our students into the school vans and headed out of town. We arrived with a general idea that we would be looking at old Calvary equipment, but once we all got inside his house I immediately regretted that we had only about 45 minutes to stay. Dwight took us down to his basement "museum".

In the first room he told us all about the saddles, bits, and bridles starting from the Civil War era and up through the end of the horse calvary. I know nothing about horses but I could appreciate his knowledge, passion and care of the historical artifacts he has collected over the years. In the next room, after we walked past his display case of toy pistols (Roy Rogers & Hop-Along Cassidy), we were treated to displays of an old gramaphone, guns, and pictures.

45 minutes goes by in a flash when you are surrounded by all of this history and a wonderful couple, Dwight & Elvera, who can tell you all about it. I was trying to get the students up the stairs to the vans and back to school but I HAD to ask about two pictures that were hanging on his wall close to the stairs. With a casual wave of his hand Dwight said, "Oh these are my great-grapndparents. They bought this land for $5 an acre from the railroad." OMG, how amazing is that! Dwight is 84 years-old and his family has been on this land for four generations. I was mentally doing the math and silently disappointed that we had to leave. I wanted more time in this wonderful historical heaven. Diwght was disappointed that we had to leave so soon because he had more rooms to show us. He has a room upstairs that has cast iron toys.

I begrudgingly left that morning, but vowed to go back with more students and a longer time. I think I could teach the whole semester from his house.